Racist Beauty Adverts

The 21st century. The inventors of the future. The pioneers of the modern era. Utter crap, we embellish our era with fancy names as such but try our hardest to hide our shattered values. Its like a fruit growing rotten at the core and spreading outward like a crippling disease consuming what it can like fire consumes its victims.

In a world that is still home to blatant racism on national television. In a land where 50 + people die because of their sexual orientation. In a world where female rights are still debated. How do we pride ourselves on being so ahead of the olden dark periods when we’re further back than we thought? Call me cynical but I think we have a long way to go.

Today I want to talk about the blatant racism that has been airing on national TV for all younger kids to see and have ingrained in their malleable minds. The event that convinced me to go on a professional rant is a commercial I saw on the TV. If you are Indian you have most likely heard of “Fair and Lovely,” the miracle cream that claims to make your skin fairer and brighter. Their ridiculous commerical shows a female unhappy with her slightly tan skin, and she is unable to find a job or a beau. Then the girl uses Fair and Lovely and with just the brightning and fairness of her skin she is able to conquer whatever feat she couldn’t get pass with darker skin. There are so many things that are wrong with this. This insinuates that fairness = success. That if you are darker skinned forget a beau you can’t even get a job. That CEO position you want? Forget talent and merit, if you are darker skinned you will automatically not be a good enough match for it.

Is this what we want to tell our sisters, mothers, friends, and daughters? We live in a world were we are so lucky to see different shades of skin with no two shades being completely alike and yet some multi-million companies decide to exploit that outdated view that fair is the only beautiful. In a time where so much hate is already prevalent, we should be joining people together, not creating more divisions.

Therefore, I want to tell you to forget the BS these multimillion dollar companies are trying to sell you. They are making money off your insecurities. They’re making money of the deeply rooted belief of fair = beautiful. When in reality it should be: every single skin tone = beautiful.